Color cake



p 9, 1941. F. R'QGERS 2,255,628 COLOR CAKE Filed 001;. 21, 1940 FIG.2 I FIG.3

FRANCIS Ross/Rs INVENTOR.

BY M M ATTORNEY.

Patented Sept. 9, 1941 COLOR CAKE Francis Rogers, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to The American Crayon Company, Sandusky, .Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Application October 21,1940, Serial No. 362,216

7 Claims.

This invention relates to water color painting and aims to provide a means whereby paint may be transferred from the cake to the brush in a different manner than hitherto, thereby enabling the user to obtain results not hitherto obtainable, and also to obtain previously known results more advantageously.

The present practice in water color painting is to put up the paint in cakes which fit into small pans, one color in each pan. The user picks up color on the brush by pulling the wet brush across the cake. To mix colors the practice is to put a brushful of color on a panel in the box lid, add to it a brushful of another color, and so on until the proper mixture is taken up on the brush and applied to the picture, but the entire load of paint on the brush is homogeneous, whether a single color or mixed. Thus while all sorts of blends can be made and applied, it is not known to apply two distinct colors by the same stroke of the brush. The principal object of my invention is to enable the user to do this; other objects include a quicker and easier blending of colors, with greater accuracy and uniformity of color on successive brush strokes, and making a usable blend of colors without having to blend on some surface other than that to which the color or colors are ultimately to be applied. Further purposes and advantages will appear as the description proceeds.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention I show Fig. 1, a plan view of a conventional water color paint box, open;

Fig. 2, an enlarged transverse vertical section on plane 2-2 of Fig. 1, with an elevation of the tuft of a brush applied to two paint cakes at once;

Fig. 3, a plan view of the tuft of a moving brush, with the streak or trace of paint left thereby after filling the brush as shown in Fig. 2

Figs. 4 and corresponding to Figs. 2 and 3 respectively, but using the two colors in other proportions.

The paint box of Fig. 1 is conventional, comprising a shelf l with several color pans 2 therein, a brush space 3 in front of the color pans, and mixing surfaces such as the panels 4 in the lid. Departure from the conventional arrangement comes in the nature of, the color cakes I I to [5 in the pans 2, which may conveniently be half-cakes side by side lengthwise in their pans, the two halves together forming a standard size cake as used in the industry. It is common practice in the industry to put up water colors in three standard sizes, namely, half-pans, three-quarter pans, and whole pans. Such whole or fractional pans are dishes of appropriate size containing the body of paint, which body may be either a hard dry cake, set in and filling such dish, and gradually becoming adhesive thereto when it is wetted in use, or it may be what is termed semi-moist, meaning that it is put into the dish in paste form and dries therein. In this specification and its claims, the term color unit is employed to include either a whole or fractional pan or other suitable container, with paint therein either in cake form or semi-moist.

A typical arrangement of specific colors in the present preferred illustrative embodiment is l ll 2, red-yellow l 2l 3, yellow-blue I |I3, red-blue l4-I 5, white-black For convenience of description the use of the red-yellow cake, l|-I2, is described in some detail, it being understood that the description would apply correspondingly to the others. By drawing the brush 2!] along the cake so that its major portion wipes the yellow half l2 and a smaller part wipes the red half H, as in Fig. 2, a color load is taken up which will leave a trace on the paper 2!, Fig. 3, consisting of a narrow red band 1 IA, a broad yellow band IZA, and an orange connecting streak I I3. If the brush is held in the same relative position to the stationary surface when moved over the paper 2| as it was when moved over the cake I l-|2, the middle streak of orange will be very narrow. If the brush is turned somewhat on its axis before it is put to the paper, the orange streak will be wider, and it is apparent that various combinations can be produced on the same principle by appropriate handling of the brush.

Similarly a double band II A, IZA with the two parts of equal width, Fig. 5, is obtained by filling the brush equally with red and yellow, as shown in Fig. 4. In this instance if the brush were turned on its axis between the operations of Figs. 4 and 5, an orange trace the full width of the brush would be left.

Besides the possibility of two-color work by single strokes, this invention permits quicker work in making various blended colors. For example suppose a considerable quantity of green is needed. The artist can make it up in one of the panels 4 by filling his brush several times on cake l2 l3 and putting it on the panel. Since each stroke takes up both yellow and blue, the mixture can be prepared by half the number of strokes on the paint otherwise necessary, with the result of much'more rapid work. v

With a little practice the artist can pick up the same proportions of the two colors on his brush each time by covering the requisite part of the surface ofeach half cake.

Having thus described a preferred embodiment I of my invention, it will be understood that various modifications in detail may be employed without departing fromthe principles taught.

I claim: 1. In a water color painting box, a dual water color painting unit comprising a pan containing? two exposed portions of equal width of different colors placed contiguously from edge to edge in said pan.

2. In a water color painting box, a dual water color painting unit comprising a pan containing two exposed portionsof different colors placed contiguously from edge to edge in said pan.

' .3. In a water color painting box, a multiple color painting unit comprising a pan containing at least two exposed portions of different colors each said unit consisting of a pan comprising two exposed portions of difierent colors placed contiguously from edge to edge of said pan, and each said unit including one color in common with the next unit in said sequence, so as to present successive groupings of related colors.

7 5. A method of water color painting which comprises simultaneously taking up two colors on contiguous portions of a brush, directly followed by making a single stroke of said brush on a surface to be colored, thereby making a multiple mark of which the outer sides are said two colors, with an intermediate portion blended of said two colors.

6. A method of water color painting which comprises simultaneously taking up two colors on contiguous portions of a brush, directly followed by making a single stroke of said brush on a surface to be colored, thereby making a mark which is the resultant of said colors.

7. A method of water color painting which comprises simultaneously taking up a plurality of colors on contiguous portions of a brush, directly followed by making a single stroke of said brush on a surface to be colored, thereby making a mark which includes the resultant of said colors.

FRANCIS ROGERS. 

